Delegating handling of computing events of a mobile device application

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are examples of systems, apparatus, methods and computer program products for delegating handling of computing events of a mobile device application. For example, an identification of a computing event can be received. The computing event can have associated metadata. The computing event can be associated with a first component of a plurality of components of a first application executable on a mobile device. The plurality of components can comprise at least a native component and a web browser component. One or more rules can be applied to the metadata. Based on the application of the one or more rules to the metadata, a second component can be identified for handling the event. Handling of the event can be delegated to the second component.

PRIORITY DATA

This patent document claims priority to and commonly assigned U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/904,113, titled “System and Methodfor Delegating Handling of Events to Web Browser and Native Componentsof Mobile Device Applications”, by Pack et al., filed on Nov. 14, 2013,which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety and for allpurposes.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the United States Patent andTrademark Office patent file or records but otherwise reserves allcopyright rights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This patent document generally relates to the handling of computingevents on a mobile device. More specifically, this patent documentdiscloses techniques for delegating handling of computing events tospecific components of a mobile device application.

BACKGROUND

“Cloud computing” services provide shared resources, applications, andinformation to computers and other devices upon request. In cloudcomputing environments, services can be provided by one or more serversaccessible over the Internet rather than installing software locally onin-house computer systems. Users can use a variety of computing devicesincluding mobile devices to interact with cloud computing services.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and serve only toprovide examples of possible structures and operations for the disclosedinventive systems, apparatus, methods and computer program products fordelegating handling of computing events of a mobile device application.These drawings in no way limit any changes in form and detail that maybe made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit andscope of the disclosed implementations.

FIG. 1 shows a flowchart of an example of a computer implemented method100 for delegating handling of computing events of a mobile deviceapplication, performed in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an example of components of a hybridmobile application, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 3A shows a block diagram of an example of components of a hybridmobile application in which a computing event is delegated amongcomponents, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 3B shows a block diagram of an example of components of a hybridmobile application in which a computing event is delegated amongcomponents, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 3C shows a block diagram of an example of components of a hybridmobile application in which a computing event is delegated amongcomponents, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 4A shows a block diagram of an example of components of a hybridmobile application in which a computing event is delegated amongcomponents, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 4B shows a block diagram of an example of components of a hybridmobile application in which a computing event is delegated amongcomponents, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 5 shows examples of presentations displayed on a mobile device inthe form of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to illustrate eventhandling by a hybrid mobile application in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 6A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service can be used in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 6B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 6A and various possible interconnections between theseelements.

FIG. 7A shows a system diagram of an example of architectural componentsof an on-demand database service environment 900, in accordance withsome implementations.

FIG. 7B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environment,in accordance with some implementations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples of systems, apparatus, methods and computer-readable storagemedia according to the disclosed implementations are described in thissection. These examples are being provided solely to add context and aidin the understanding of the disclosed implementations. It will thus beapparent to one skilled in the art that implementations may be practicedwithout some or all of these specific details. In other instances,certain operations have not been described in detail to avoidunnecessarily obscuring implementations. Other applications arepossible, such that the following examples should not be taken asdefinitive or limiting either in scope or setting.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in whichare shown, by way of illustration, specific implementations. Althoughthese implementations are described in sufficient detail to enable oneskilled in the art to practice the disclosed implementations, it isunderstood that these examples are not limiting, such that otherimplementations may be used and changes may be made without departingfrom their spirit and scope. For example, the operations of methodsshown and described herein are not necessarily performed in the orderindicated. It should also be understood that the methods may includemore or fewer operations than are indicated. In some implementations,operations described herein as separate operations may be combined.Conversely, what may be described herein as a single operation may beimplemented in multiple operations.

Some implementations of the disclosed systems, apparatus, methods andcomputer program products are configured to delegate handling ofcomputing events of an application executing on a mobile device such asa tablet or a smartphone. A computing event can be initiated on a mobiledevice or other computing device responsive to an action, such as a userclicking or tapping on an object displayed in a graphical user interface(GUI) on a display of the device, or responsive to an occurrence such asa message or notification being received or output at the device. By wayof example, a user taps or otherwise makes a selection in the GUIindicating a request to navigate to a social network feed using anapplication (app) installed on her smartphone. The user's request tonavigate to her social network feed might initiate a “navigateToFeed”computing event, which would cause the feed to be loaded and displayedin the GUI when the computing event is processed by a processor of theuser's device. An app installed on the user's device, such as theSalesforce1 ® mobile app, might then detect the navigateToFeed event,and load the user's social network feed on her smartphone.

A mobile device app that includes at least: (1) a web browser componentsuch as a webview, which can render content such as a social networkfeed on a web site, and (2) a native component, such as Objective-C orJava, is generally referred to herein as a hybrid mobile app.Traditionally, developers of applications installed on computing deviceshave used a native container to host web content. For example, if anobject were to be rendered using HyperText Markup Language version 5(HTML5), a browser would display a static web page. Thus, a user mightwish to close the browser for the purpose of re-visiting a previouslyrendered window or presentation. Traditionally developers have usedapplication program interfaces (APIs) to access native operating systemfeatures, such as a camera, adding processing overhead. The disclosedtechniques for delegating the handling of events to a web browsercomponent or a native component of a hybrid mobile app can improvemobile device functionality by decreasing processing overhead.

In some of the disclosed implementations, a “switchboard” is a componentof a hybrid mobile app that provides event monitoring and queuing and isconfigurable based on server-side configurations, such as metadata APIs,organization administrator permissions, and other factors. Theswitchboard essentially serves as the “heart” of the app by enablingevent bridging such that events can be dispatched seamlessly betweennative and web browser components. In some implementations, theswitchboard uses controllers to expose the native component to the webbrowser component and expose the web browser component to the nativecomponent, resulting in a two-way event model for data processing anduser interface implementation. By way of illustration, the Androidoperating system renders picklists using the native Android picklist,but the switchboard enables the picklist to be changed to a web browserdropdown box.

In one example of event delegation, Erica, a customer servicerepresentative, wants to view information pertaining to a specificaccount record maintained in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM)database using a hybrid mobile app on her mobile device. Erica mightbegin by navigating to a list of a set or subset of accounts stored inthe CRM database, where the list is implemented in native code. At thispoint, Erica might tap a graphical object on a GUI of her device torequest to navigate to a particular account record for the ACMECorporation. Alexa, an administrator, might have decided that the recordview is best rendered by a web browser component of the hybrid mobileapp. Thus, Alexa customized the hybrid mobile app accordingly. In such ascenario, Erica's request to navigate to the account record for the ACMECorporation initiates a computing event named “navigateToDetail.” Atthis point, the navigateToDetail computing event will be delegated tothe web browser component of the hybrid mobile device app. In otherwords, the account record for the ACME Corporation will rendered by aweb browser component of the hybrid mobile app.

Along the same lines, delegation can be highly customized based onspecific computing events. For example, Erica might be viewing a socialnetwork feed, rather than a list of accounts. In some implementations,when Erica clicks on a name in the social network feed to request toview more information, a computing event named“navigateToFeedItemDetail” can be initiated. Since the entity navigatedto by Erica is a person's social network page or profile rather than aCRM record, the hybrid mobile app might be customized such that thenavigateToFeedItemDetail computing event will be handled by the nativecomponent.

Delegation of the handling of computing events to web browser and nativecomponents of hybrid mobile device apps is also relevant in a highlycustomizable platform, such as an enterprise platform provided bySalesforce.com® (described below) to any number of customers. Forexample, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) might each customize theirplatform differently. A determination about how to render a specifictechnology, such as a social network feed, might desirably be dynamic.For example, this determination could depend on the type of user deviceviewing the social network feed. In some implementations of thedisclosed techniques, there can be a well-defined series of events tocreate cohesion across platforms between ISVs. Ultimately, there mightbe no way for an end user to know what is provided by an enterpriseplatform, customized by an administrator, or is ISV-provided.Furthermore, even if different developers are working on different partsof the platform in relative isolation from one another, the disclosedtechniques can be used to create a seamless user experience because theend user has access to a uniform system for handling computing events.

Since each decision point in computing event delegation can bemetadata-driven, rules for delegation can be generated and customized ina variety of manners. For instance, rules can be periodically downloadedfrom a server. Also or alternatively, users can have the ability to makea decision about how items are best viewed. For example, AlphaCorporation can make a rule that a record feed is best rendered by thenative component. On the other hand, Beta LLP might choose to have thesame or similar content rendered by the web browser component.

In some implementations, the disclosed techniques can not only be usedwithin a specific platform, but can also be combined with invocations toand from 3^(rd) party apps. By way of illustration, Trang is using afirst hybrid mobile app, which is unaffiliated with LinkedIn®. Trangnavigates to content associated with LinkedIn®, initiating a computingevent such as navigateToThirdPartyApp. At this point, the hybrid mobileapp can detect whether the LinkedIn® mobile app is installed on Trang'sphone. If the LinkedIn® app is installed, Trang will be routed to theapp; otherwise, she will be routed to the LinkedIn® web site.Potentially, another event might be initiated, routing Trang back to thefirst hybrid mobile app.

In some implementations, the disclosed techniques can be used forcustomizable preferential routing between mobile apps. For instance,assume that Trang has both the LinkedIn® and Facebook® apps installed onher phone. Because Trang is about to graduate college, she would like tospend her time networking in order to secure a job when she graduates.In this case, Trang can customize a rule, which routessocial-networking-based computing events to her LinkedIn® app ratherthan her Facebook® app even though she has both apps installed.

Some but not all of the techniques described or referenced herein areimplemented to handle computing events associated with an enterprisesocial networking system. Social networking systems have become apopular way to facilitate communication among people, any of whom can berecognized as users of a social networking system. One example of asocial networking system is Chatter®, provided by Salesforce.com®, inc.of San Francisco, Calif. Salesforce.com®, inc. is a provider of socialnetworking services, CRM services and other database managementservices, any of which can be accessed and used in conjunction with thetechniques disclosed herein in some implementations. These variousservices can be provided in a cloud computing environment, for example,in the context of a multi-tenant database system. Thus, the disclosedtechniques can be implemented without having to install softwarelocally, that is, on computing devices of users interacting withservices available through the cloud. While the disclosedimplementations are often described with reference to Chatter®, thoseskilled in the art should understand that the disclosed techniques areneither limited to Chatter® nor to any other services and systemsprovided by Salesforce.com®, inc. and can be implemented in the contextof various other database systems and/or social networking systems suchas Facebook®, LinkedIn®, Twitter®, Google+®, Yammer® and Jive® by way ofexample only.

Some social networking systems can be implemented in various settings,including organizations. For instance, a social networking system can beimplemented to connect users within an enterprise such as a company orbusiness partnership, or a group of users within such an organization.For instance, Chatter® can be used by employee users in a division of abusiness organization to share data, communicate, and collaborate witheach other for various social purposes often involving the business ofthe organization. In the example of a multi-tenant database system, eachorganization or group within the organization can be a respective tenantof the system, as described in greater detail below.

In some social networking systems, users can access one or more socialnetwork feeds, which include information updates presented as items orentries in the feed. Such a feed item can include a single informationupdate or a collection of individual information updates. A feed itemcan include various types of data including character-based data, audiodata, image data and/or video data. A social network feed can bedisplayed in a graphical user interface (GUI) on a display device suchas the display of a computing device as described below. The informationupdates can include various social network data from various sources andcan be stored in an on-demand database service environment. In someimplementations, the disclosed methods, apparatus, systems, andcomputer-readable storage media may be configured or designed for use ina multi-tenant database environment.

In some implementations, a social networking system may allow a user tofollow data objects in the form of CRM records such as cases, accounts,or opportunities, in addition to following individual users and groupsof users. The “following” of a record stored in a database, as describedin greater detail below, allows a user to track the progress of thatrecord when the user is subscribed to the record. Updates to the record,also referred to herein as changes to the record, are one type ofinformation update that can occur and be noted on a social network feedsuch as a record feed or a news feed of a user subscribed to the record.Examples of record updates include field changes in the record, updatesto the status of a record, as well as the creation of the record itself.Some records are publicly accessible, such that any user can follow therecord, while other records are private, for which appropriate securityclearance/permissions are a prerequisite to a user following the record.

Information updates can include various types of updates, which may ormay not be linked with a particular record. For example, informationupdates can be social media messages submitted by a user or canotherwise be generated in response to user actions or in response toevents. Examples of social media messages include: posts, comments,indications of a user's personal preferences such as “likes” and“dislikes”, updates to a user's status, uploaded files, anduser-submitted hyperlinks to social network data or other network datasuch as various documents and/or web pages on the Internet. Posts caninclude alpha-numeric or other character-based user inputs such aswords, phrases, statements, questions, emotional expressions, and/orsymbols. Comments generally refer to responses to posts or to otherinformation updates, such as words, phrases, statements, answers,questions, and reactionary emotional expressions and/or symbols.Multimedia data can be included in, linked with, or attached to a postor comment. For example, a post can include textual statements incombination with a JPEG image or animated image. A like or dislike canbe submitted in response to a particular post or comment. Examples ofuploaded files include presentations, documents, multimedia files, andthe like.

Users can follow a record by subscribing to the record, as mentionedabove. Users can also follow other entities such as other types of dataobjects, other users, and groups of users. Feed tracked updatesregarding such entities are one type of information update that can bereceived and included in the user's news feed. Any number of users canfollow a particular entity and thus view information updates pertainingto that entity on the users' respective news feeds. In some socialnetworks, users may follow each other by establishing connections witheach other, sometimes referred to as “friending” one another. Byestablishing such a connection, one user may be able to see informationgenerated by, generated about, or otherwise associated with anotheruser. For instance, a first user may be able to see information postedby a second user to the second user's personal social network page. Oneimplementation of such a personal social network page is a user'sprofile page, for example, in the form of a web page representing theuser's profile. In one example, when the first user is following thesecond user, the first user's news feed can receive a post from thesecond user submitted to the second user's profile feed. A user'sprofile feed is also referred to herein as the user's “wall,” which isone example of a social network feed displayed on the user's profilepage.

In some implementations, a social network feed may be specific to agroup of users of a social networking system. For instance, a group ofusers may publish a news feed. Members of the group may view and post tothis group feed in accordance with a permissions configuration for thefeed and the group. Information updates in a group context can alsoinclude changes to group status information.

In some implementations, when data such as posts or comments input fromone or more users are submitted to a social network feed for aparticular user, group, object, or other construct within a socialnetworking system, an email notification or other type of networkcommunication may be transmitted to all users following the user, group,or object in addition to the inclusion of the data as a feed item in oneor more feeds, such as a user's profile feed, a news feed, or a recordfeed. In some social networking systems, the occurrence of such anotification is limited to the first instance of a published input,which may form part of a larger conversation. For instance, anotification may be transmitted for an initial post, but not forcomments on the post. In some other implementations, a separatenotification is transmitted for each such information update.

The term “multi-tenant database system” generally refers to thosesystems in which various elements of hardware and/or software of adatabase system may be shared by one or more customers. For example, agiven application server may simultaneously process requests for a greatnumber of customers, and a given database table may store rows of datasuch as feed items for a potentially much greater number of customers.

An example of a “user profile” or “user's profile” is a database objector set of objects configured to store and maintain data about a givenuser of a social networking system and/or database system. The data caninclude general information, such as name, title, phone number, a photo,a biographical summary, and a status, e.g., text describing what theuser is currently doing. As mentioned below, the data can include socialmedia messages created by other users. Where there are multiple tenants,a user is typically associated with a particular tenant. For example, auser could be a salesperson of a company, which is a tenant of thedatabase system that provides a database service.

The term “record” generally refers to a data entity having fields withvalues and stored in database system. An example of a record is aninstance of a data object created by a user of the database service, forexample, in the form of a CRM record about a particular (actual orpotential) business relationship or project. The record can have a datastructure defined by the database service (a standard object) or definedby a user (custom object). For example, a record can be for a businesspartner or potential business partner (e.g., a client, vendor,distributor, etc.) of the user, and can include information describingan entire company, subsidiaries, or contacts at the company. As anotherexample, a record can be a project that the user is working on, such asan opportunity (e.g., a possible sale) with an existing partner, or aproject that the user is trying to get. In one implementation of amulti-tenant database system, each record for the tenants has a uniqueidentifier stored in a common table. A record has data fields that aredefined by the structure of the object (e.g., fields of certain datatypes and purposes). A record can also have custom fields defined by auser. A field can be another record or include links thereto, therebyproviding a parent-child relationship between the records.

The terms “social network feed” and “feed” are used interchangeablyherein and generally refer to a combination (e.g., a list) of feed itemsor entries with various types of information and data. Such feed itemscan be stored and maintained in one or more database tables, e.g., asrows in the table(s), that can be accessed to retrieve relevantinformation to be presented as part of a displayed feed. The term “feeditem” (or feed element) generally refers to an item of information,which can be presented in the feed such as a post submitted by a user.Feed items of information about a user can be presented in a user'sprofile feed of the database, while feed items of information about arecord can be presented in a record feed in the database, by way ofexample. A profile feed and a record feed are examples of differenttypes of social network feeds. A second user following a first user anda record can receive the feed items associated with the first user andthe record for display in the second user's news feed, which is anothertype of social network feed. In some implementations, the feed itemsfrom any number of followed users and records can be combined into asingle social network feed of a particular user.

As examples, a feed item can be a social media message, such as auser-generated post of text data, and a feed tracked update to a recordor profile, such as a change to a field of the record. Feed trackedupdates are described in greater detail below. A feed can be acombination of social media messages and feed tracked updates. Socialmedia messages include text created by a user, and may include otherdata as well. Examples of social media messages include posts, userstatus updates, and comments. Social media messages can be created for auser's profile or for a record. Posts can be created by various users,potentially any user, although some restrictions can be applied. As anexample, posts can be made to a wall section of a user's profile page(which can include a number of recent posts) or a section of a recordthat includes multiple posts. The posts can be organized inchronological order when displayed in a GUI, for instance, on the user'sprofile page, as part of the user's profile feed. In contrast to a post,a user status update changes a status of a user and can be made by thatuser or an administrator. A record can also have a status, the update ofwhich can be provided by an owner of the record or other users havingsuitable write access permissions to the record. The owner can be asingle user, multiple users, or a group.

In some implementations, a comment can be made on any feed item. In someimplementations, comments are organized as a list explicitly tied to aparticular feed tracked update, post, or status update. In someimplementations, comments may not be listed in the first layer (in ahierarchal sense) of feed items, but listed as a second layer branchingfrom a particular first layer feed item.

A “feed tracked update,” also referred to herein as a “feed update,” isone type of information update and generally refers to data representingan event. A feed tracked update can include text generated by thedatabase system in response to the event, to be provided as one or morefeed items for possible inclusion in one or more feeds. In oneimplementation, the data can initially be stored, and then the databasesystem can later use the data to create text for describing the event.Both the data and/or the text can be a feed tracked update, as usedherein. In various implementations, an event can be an update of arecord and/or can be triggered by a specific action by a user. Whichactions trigger an event can be configurable. Which events have feedtracked updates created and which feed updates are sent to which userscan also be configurable. Social media messages and other types of feedupdates can be stored as a field or child object of the record. Forexample, the feed can be stored as a child object of the record.

A “group” is generally a collection of users. In some implementations,the group may be defined as users with a same or similar attribute, orby membership. In some implementations, a “group feed”, also referred toherein as a “group news feed”, includes one or more feed items about anyuser in the group. In some implementations, the group feed also includesinformation updates and other feed items that are about the group as awhole, the group's purpose, the group's description, and group recordsand other objects stored in association with the group. Threads ofinformation updates including group record updates and social mediamessages, such as posts, comments, likes, etc., can define groupconversations and change over time.

An “entity feed” or “record feed” generally refers to a feed of feeditems about a particular record in the database. Such feed items caninclude feed tracked updates about changes to the record and posts madeby users about the record. An entity feed can be composed of any type offeed item. Such a feed can be displayed on a page such as a web pageassociated with the record, e.g., a home page of the record. As usedherein, a “profile feed” or “user's profile feed” generally refers to afeed of feed items about a particular user. In one example, the feeditems for a profile feed include posts and comments that other usersmake about or send to the particular user, and status updates made bythe particular user. Such a profile feed can be displayed on a pageassociated with the particular user. In another example, feed items in aprofile feed could include posts made by the particular user and feedtracked updates initiated based on actions of the particular user.

FIG. 1 shows a flowchart of an example of a computer implemented method100 for delegating handling of computing events of a mobile deviceapplication (app), performed in accordance with some implementations.FIG. 1 is described with reference to FIGS. 2, 3A-C and 5. FIG. 2 showsa block diagram of an example of components of a hybrid mobile app, inaccordance with some implementations. FIGS. 3A-C show block diagrams ofexamples of components of a hybrid mobile app in which a computing eventis delegated among components, in accordance with some implementations.FIG. 5 shows examples of presentations displayed on a mobile device inthe form of GUIs to illustrate event handling by a hybrid mobile app inaccordance with some implementations.

In some but not all implementations of method 100 in FIG. 1, at 101,input from a user is received at the user's device. Specific types ofuser input can differ across implementations. For instance, user inputmight indicate a user's selection of one or more records such as CRMrecords stored in a database system of an on-demand database service. Asdepicted in FIG. 5, a user might select a contact record 504 for JohnDavids by tapping or clicking record 504 in a list 500. Similarly, userinput might reflect a selection in association with an enterprise socialnetwork feed 508 such as a selection of feed item 512. For example, auser might tap or click feed item 512 in social network feed 508 to findout more specific information about a customer account record named“Azzaria's Restaurants—300 Point of Sale Systems”.

Returning to FIG. 1, at 102, in some but not all implementations ofmethod 100, a computing event is initiated in response to the userinput. As discussed above, computing events can vary greatly acrossimplementations. For example, when a user makes a selection requestingto navigate to her enterprise social network feed 508 of FIG. 5 on hersmartphone, a navigateToFeed computing event can be initiated.Similarly, if the user taps or clicks on feed item 512, anavigateToFeedItemDetail event can be initiated. Along the same lines, anavigateToList event can be initiated when a user taps on list 500 torequest a complete list of database records. Those skilled in the artshould appreciate that the naming scheme for particular events isarbitrary.

A computing event can be associated with, or more specifically,initiated at either a native component or a web browser component of ahybrid mobile app. By way of example, a navigateToFeed event can beinitiated at the native component of the Salesforce1® mobile app when auser navigates to her Chatter® feed while she is reading a customeraccount record which is rendered by the native component of theSalesforce1® mobile app. Similarly, a navigateToRecord event can beinitiated at the web browser component of the Salesforce1® mobile appwhen a user navigates to an account record while she is reading herChatter® feed which is rendered by the web browser component of theSalesforce1® mobile app.

While the specific details of each component can vary acrossimplementations, one example showing the components comprising a hybridmobile app 200 is illustrated in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, Aura 204 andBridge.app 208 are two components which define, at least in part, theweb browser component of hybrid mobile app 200 and are illustratedseparately to more easily show the flow of events. In someimplementations, Aura 204 might be an HTLM5-based user interfaceframework, such as Aura® provided by Salesforce.com®. Bridge.app 208 canhost Aura® elements loaded by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).Bridge.app 208 can propagate computing events that are initiated at Aura204. On the other hand, Native App 212 serves as the native component ofhybrid mobile app 200. Switchboard 216 is configured to determinewhether an event can be handled and, if so, to which component the eventshould be delegated.

Returning to FIG. 1, at 104, metadata is associated with the computingevent. More specifically, metadata describing or relating to aparticular computing event can be linked to the computing event. By wayof illustration, assume the computing event navigateToFeed is initiatedin a hybrid mobile app being implemented on a particular user device.Metadata including information relating to the operating system of theparticular user device, such as whether the user device is running iOSor Android, can be linked to the navigateToFeed event. Also oralternatively, metadata that is linked to a computing event mightinclude information identifying an app, web site or data from which theuser is navigating, such as a web browser presentation of a particularChatter® feed item or a native mobile app.

Returning to FIG. 1, at 108, one or more rules can be applied to themetadata. Such rules can direct a computing event to a particularcomponent of a hybrid mobile app based on metadata linked to thecomputing event at 104. By way of example, metadata might indicate thata particular navigateToFeed event was initiated when a user navigated toher Chatter® feed from a specific context such as the Salesforce.com®web site. In this case, a rule might indicate that a navigateToFeedevent that is initiated from the Salesforce.com® web site should behandled by the web browser component of a hybrid mobile application.

In some implementations, a rule might indicate one or more parameters,such as the context of the Salesforce.com® web site described in thepreceding example. While such parameters can differ acrossimplementations, another non-limiting example might include a user ororganizational preference such as Alpha Corporation's preference that arecord feed is best rendered by the native component of a hybrid mobileapp. Also or alternatively, such parameters might include a user ororganizational permission set. By way of example, a certain user atAlpha Corporation might have permission to view account records whileanother user does not. In this case, a navigateToRecord event might behandled differently based on each user's permission.

Rules can be customized by a user. For example, a user can have theability to set a parameter governing how certain content is to beviewed. In some implementations, a first user or organization can make arule that certain content is best rendered by the native component of ahybrid mobile app whereas a different user or organization can make arule that the same content is best rendered by the web browser componentof the hybrid mobile app. Additionally, a set of rules can be downloadedfrom a server, allowing for rapid, easy, or even automatic updatability.

In FIG. 1, at 112, a component is identified for handling the computingevent. Several examples are described below with reference to FIGS.3A-C. In some implementations, identification of a component forhandling a computing event occurs at Switchboard 216 of FIG. 2 and isbased on the application of the one or more rules to the metadata,occurring at 108 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3A shows an example relating to computing event 300, which isinitiated at Aura 204. Computing event 300 is propagated from Aura 204to Bridge.app 208. Bridge.app 208 in turn propagates computing event 300to Switchboard 216, which identifies a component to handle event 300based on an application of one or more rules to the metadata associatedwith computing event 300, as described above at 108 of FIG. 1. In theexample of FIG. 3A, Switchboard 216 identifies that computing event 300should be handled by Aura 204. In some implementations, computing event300 might be delegated to Aura 204 rather than Native App 212 because apermission or preference as described above does not allow computingevent 300 to be handled by Native App 212. Alternatively, regardless ofany rules or parameters, Aura 204 may be identified to handle computingevent 300 because computing event 300 is only suited or better suited tobe handled by Aura 204.

FIGS. 3B-C illustrate several other scenarios. FIG. 3B shows an examplerelating to computing event 304, which is initiated at Aura 204.Switchboard 216 identifies Native App 212 to handle computing event 304based on an application of one or more rules to the metadata associatedwith computing event 304, at 108 of FIG. 1. FIG. 3C shows an examplerelating to computing event 308, which is initiated at Native App 212.Switchboard 216 identifies Bridge.app 208 to handle computing event 308based on an application of one or more rules to the metadata associatedwith computing event 308, occurring at 108 of FIG. 1.

In FIG. 1, at 116, handling of the event is delegated to the componentidentified at 112. A given computing event can be handled by a componentin a variety of ways. In the example of FIG. 3A, Switchboard 216 sends amessage to Bridge.app 208 indicating that Aura 204 has been identifiedto handle computing event 300; and handling of computing event 300 isdelegated to Aura 204. Along these lines, in FIG. 3B, handling ofcomputing event 304 is delegated to Native App 212, since Native App 212is the component identified at 112 of FIG. 1. In FIG. 3C, handling ofcomputing event 308 is delegated to Bridge.app 208, since Bridge.app 208is the component identified at 112 of FIG. 1.

In some implementations, processing of method 100 is completed at 116.In some other implementations, processing continues at 120, where thecomputing event is handled by the component to which the event wasdelegated. In some instances, the handling of the event results in anoutput, such as data to be displayed in a GUI. At 124, any such outputcan be displayed in a presentation on a display of a computing devicesuch as the user's tablet or smartphone. For example, returning to FIG.5, list 500 can be displayed on a user's mobile device in response to anavigateToList event initiated when the user navigates to a list ofdatabase records. Enterprise social network feed 508 can be displayed onthe user's mobile device, in response to a navigateToFeed eventinitiated when the user navigates to her Chatter® feed. Similarly, ifthe user taps or clicks on feed item 512 in social network feed 508,initiating a navigateToFeedItemDetail event, feed item 512 can bedisplayed on the user's mobile device.

In some implementations, computing events can be initiated in a widevariety of contexts outside of a particular hybrid mobile app. FIGS. 4Aand 4B show block diagrams of examples of components of a hybrid mobileapp in which a computing event is delegated among components, inaccordance with some implementations. A computing event can be initiatedin response to a notification or an invocation related to a third partymobile device app. For instance, in the example of FIG. 4A, PushNotification 400 is received at Switchboard 216. In someimplementations, Push Notification 400 might be a notification that auser has been mentioned on Chatter®. Computing event 404 and/orcomputing event 408 can be initiated in response to receiving PushNotification 400 or in response to a user clicking or tapping PushNotification 400 on a mobile device. By way of illustration, the eventnavigateToFeed might be initiated in response to Push Notification 400and handling of the navigateToFeed event can be delegated as describedabove.

FIG. 4B shows an example in which a third party app is configured toutilize the functionality of a hybrid mobile app. Invocation 412 of athird party app is received at Switchboard 216. Computing event 416and/or computing event 420 are initiated in response to Invocation 412.In some implementations, Switchboard 216 will determine whether thethird party app is authorized and route computing event 416 and/orcomputing event 420 to the third party app if it is indeed authorized.This process can be repeated when a user navigates back and forthbetween apps such as the LinkedIn® and Chatter® apps.

In some implementations, it can be useful to save data identifyingcomputing events and identifying which components handled the events sothat a user can navigate to previously viewed content. For example, auser can navigate to previously viewed content by hitting a “back”button displayed in a user interface. In some implementations, such ascheme might be carried out by storing and updating historical eventdata indicating that handling of an event has been delegated to aparticular component. Such historical event data, which might includeidentifications of events and components handling the events, can beupdated each time an event is delegated. Additionally, a presentation ofcontent associated with a previous event, such as a previously viewedscreen in an app, can be provided on a display responsive to user inputsuch as a user clicking or tapping a back button. Such a presentation ofcontent might be based on the historical event data. By way ofillustration, a user who navigates from viewing a feed item in Chatter®as displayed using a web browser component to the LinkedIn® app cannavigate back to the Chatter® feed.

In some implementations, an indication of a computing event might bereceived at a mobile device while the mobile device is offline. Datacharacterizing the computing event can be cached such that an indicationof the computing event is received when a hybrid mobile app is loaded.By way of illustration, assume that an address changes for an accountwhile a sales executive is on an airplane flight. Switchboard 216 canprime data characterizing the address change, that is, cache the data ona client device such that it becomes readily available upon loading thehybrid mobile app. Thus, Switchboard 216 enables data priming that helpsto automatically synchronize data for the hybrid mobile app, even in anoffline mode.

The computing events described above can relate to a wide variety ofcomputing environments. In some implementations, a computing event mightrelate to applications and services for interacting with CustomerRelationship Management (CRM) records such as accounts, tasks, leads,contacts, contracts and opportunities. For example, when a user clicksor taps on a CRM record, a navigateToRecord event might be initiated. Asdescribed above, the CRM record would then displayed on the user'scomputing device responsive to the navigateToRecord event.

Systems, apparatus, and methods are described below for implementingdatabase systems and enterprise level social and business informationnetworking systems in conjunction with the disclosed techniques. Suchimplementations can provide more efficient use of a database system. Forinstance, a user of a database system may not easily know when importantinformation in the database has changed, e.g., about a project orclient. Such implementations can provide feed tracked updates about suchchanges and other events, thereby keeping users informed.

By way of example, a user can update a record in the form of a CRMobject, e.g., an opportunity such as a possible sale of 1000 computers.Once the record update has been made, a feed tracked update about therecord update can then automatically be provided, e.g., in a feed, toanyone subscribing to the opportunity or to the user. Thus, the userdoes not need to contact a manager regarding the change in theopportunity, since the feed tracked update about the update is sent viaa feed to the manager's feed page or other page.

FIG. 6A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service exists and can be used in accordancewith some implementations. Environment 10 may include user systems 12,network 14, database system 16, processor system 17, applicationplatform 18, network interface 20, tenant data storage 22, system datastorage 24, program code 26, and process space 28. In otherimplementations, environment 10 may not have all of these componentsand/or may have other components instead of, or in addition to, thoselisted above.

A user system 12 may be implemented as any computing device(s) or otherdata processing apparatus such as a machine or system used by a user toaccess a database system 16. For example, any of user systems 12 can bea handheld and/or portable computing device such as a mobile phone, asmartphone, a laptop computer, or a tablet. Other examples of a usersystem include computing devices such as a work station and/or a networkof computing devices. As illustrated in FIG. 6A (and in more detail inFIG. 6B) user systems 12 might interact via a network 14 with anon-demand database service, which is implemented in the example of FIG.6A as database system 16.

An on-demand database service, implemented using system 16 by way ofexample, is a service that is made available to users who do not need tonecessarily be concerned with building and/or maintaining the databasesystem. Instead, the database system may be available for their use whenthe users need the database system, i.e., on the demand of the users.Some on-demand database services may store information from one or moretenants into tables of a common database image to form a multi-tenantdatabase system (MTS). A database image may include one or more databaseobjects. A relational database management system (RDBMS) or theequivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information against thedatabase object(s). Application platform 18 may be a framework thatallows the applications of system 16 to run, such as the hardware and/orsoftware, e.g., the operating system. In some implementations,application platform 18 enables creation, managing and executing one ormore applications developed by the provider of the on-demand databaseservice, users accessing the on-demand database service via user systems12, or third party application developers accessing the on-demanddatabase service via user systems 12.

The users of user systems 12 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 12 might be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. Forexample, when a salesperson is using a particular user system 12 tointeract with system 16, the user system has the capacities allotted tothat salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with system 16, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical rolemodel, users at one permission level may have access to applications,data, and database information accessible by a lower permission leveluser, but may not have access to certain applications, databaseinformation, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level.Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard toaccessing and modifying application and database information, dependingon a user's security or permission level, also called authorization.

Network 14 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 14 can be any one orany combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. Network 14 can include a TCP/IP (Transfer ControlProtocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetworkof networks often referred to as the Internet. The Internet will be usedin many of the examples herein. However, it should be understood thatthe networks that the present implementations might use are not solimited.

User systems 12 might communicate with system 16 using TCP/IP and, at ahigher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 12 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP signals to and from anHTTP server at system 16. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface 20 between system 16 and network 14, butother techniques might be used as well or instead. In someimplementations, the network interface 20 between system 16 and network14 includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP requestdistributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requestsevenly over a plurality of servers. At least for users accessing system16, each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data;however, other alternative configurations may be used instead.

In one implementation, system 16, shown in FIG. 6A, implements aweb-based CRM system. For example, in one implementation, system 16includes application servers configured to implement and execute CRMsoftware applications as well as provide related data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and from user systems 12 and to store to,and retrieve from, a database system related data, objects, and Webpagecontent. With a multi-tenant system, data for multiple tenants may bestored in the same physical database object in tenant data storage 22,however, tenant data typically is arranged in the storage medium(s) oftenant data storage 22 so that data of one tenant is kept logicallyseparate from that of other tenants so that one tenant does not haveaccess to another tenant's data, unless such data is expressly shared.In certain implementations, system 16 implements applications otherthan, or in addition to, a CRM application. For example, system 16 mayprovide tenant access to multiple hosted (standard and custom)applications, including a CRM application. User (or third partydeveloper) applications, which may or may not include CRM, may besupported by the application platform 18, which manages creation,storage of the applications into one or more database objects andexecuting of the applications in a virtual machine in the process spaceof the system 16.

One arrangement for elements of system 16 is shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B,including a network interface 20, application platform 18, tenant datastorage 22 for tenant data 23, system data storage 24 for system data 25accessible to system 16 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 26for implementing various functions of system 16, and a process space 28for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, suchas running applications as part of an application hosting service.Additional processes that may execute on system 16 include databaseindexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 6A include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 12 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. The term “computing device” is also referred to hereinsimply as a “computer”. User system 12 typically runs an HTTP client,e.g., a browsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 12 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 16 over network 14. Each usersystem 12 also typically includes one or more user input devices, suchas a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen or thelike, for interacting with a GUI provided by the browser on a display(e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, OLED display, etc.) of thecomputing device in conjunction with pages, forms, applications andother information provided by system 16 or other systems or servers.Thus, “display device” as used herein can refer to a display of acomputer system such as a monitor or touch-screen display, and can referto any computing device having display capabilities such as a desktopcomputer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, a television set-top box, orwearable device such Google Glass® or other human body-mounted displayapparatus. For example, the display device can be used to access dataand applications hosted by system 16, and to perform searches on storeddata, and otherwise allow a user to interact with various GUI pages thatmay be presented to a user. As discussed above, implementations aresuitable for use with the Internet, although other networks can be usedinstead of or in addition to the Internet, such as an intranet, anextranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network,any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one implementation, each user system 12 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 16(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of its components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using processor system 17,which may be implemented to include a central processing unit, which mayinclude an Intel Pentium® processor or the like, and/or multipleprocessor units. Non-transitory computer-readable media can haveinstructions stored thereon/in, that can be executed by or used toprogram a computing device to perform any of the methods of theimplementations described herein. Computer program code 26 implementinginstructions for operating and configuring system 16 to intercommunicateand to process web pages, applications and other data and media contentas described herein is preferably downloadable and stored on a harddisk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also bestored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device asis well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable ofstoring program code, such as any type of rotating media includingfloppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk(CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or opticalcards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any other typeof computer-readable medium or device suitable for storing instructionsand/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof,may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over atransmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, asis well known, or transmitted over any other conventional networkconnection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using anycommunication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet,etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer codefor the disclosed implementations can be realized in any programminglanguage that can be executed on a client system and/or server or serversystem such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language,Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such asVBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may beused. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

According to some implementations, each system 16 is configured toprovide web pages, forms, applications, data and media content to user(client) systems 12 to support the access by user systems 12 as tenantsof system 16. As such, system 16 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another(e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or theymay be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one ormore servers located in city A and one or more servers located in cityB). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant to referto one type of computing device such as a system including processinghardware and process space(s), an associated storage medium such as amemory device or database, and, in some instances, a databaseapplication (e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. Itshould also be understood that “server system” and “server” are oftenused interchangeably herein. Similarly, the database objects describedherein can be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 6B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 6A and various possible interconnections between theseelements. That is, FIG. 6B also illustrates environment 10. However, inFIG. 6B elements of system 16 and various interconnections in someimplementations are further illustrated. FIG. 6B shows that user system12 may include processor system 12A, memory system 12B, input system12C, and output system 12D. FIG. 6B shows network 14 and system 16. FIG.6B also shows that system 16 may include tenant data storage 22, tenantdata 23, system data storage 24, system data 25, User Interface (UI) 30,Application Program Interface (API) 32, PL/SOQL 34, save routines 36,application setup mechanism 38, application servers 50 ₁-50 _(N), systemprocess space 52, tenant process spaces 54, tenant management processspace 60, tenant storage space 62, user storage 64, and applicationmetadata 66. In other implementations, environment 10 may not have thesame elements as those listed above and/or may have other elementsinstead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

User system 12, network 14, system 16, tenant data storage 22, andsystem data storage 24 were discussed above in FIG. 6A. Regarding usersystem 12, processor system 12A may be any combination of one or moreprocessors. Memory system 12B may be any combination of one or morememory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system 12Cmay be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards,mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks.Output system 12D may be any combination of output devices, such as oneor more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown byFIG. 6B, system 16 may include a network interface 20 (of FIG. 6A)implemented as a set of application servers 50, an application platform18, tenant data storage 22, and system data storage 24. Also shown issystem process space 52, including individual tenant process spaces 54and a tenant management process space 60. Each application server 50 maybe configured to communicate with tenant data storage 22 and the tenantdata 23 therein, and system data storage 24 and the system data 25therein to serve requests of user systems 12. The tenant data 23 mightbe divided into individual tenant storage spaces 62, which can be eithera physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data. Within eachtenant storage space 62, user storage 64 and application metadata 66might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, a copy of auser's most recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage64. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is atenant might be stored to tenant storage space 62. A UI 30 provides auser interface and an API 32 provides an application programmerinterface to system 16 resident processes to users and/or developers atuser systems 12. The tenant data and the system data may be stored invarious databases, such as one or more Oracle® databases.

Application platform 18 includes an application setup mechanism 38 thatsupports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage 22by save routines 36 for execution by subscribers as one or more tenantprocess spaces 54 managed by tenant management process 60 for example.Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 34 thatprovides a programming language style interface extension to API 32. Adetailed description of some PL/SOQL language implementations isdiscussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478, titled METHODAND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS VIA AMULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by Craig Weissman, issued onJun. 1, 2010, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety andfor all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one ormore system processes, which manage retrieving application metadata 66for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata asan application in a virtual machine.

Each application server 50 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 25 and tenant data 23, via adifferent network connection. For example, one application server 50 ₁might be coupled via the network 14 (e.g., the Internet), anotherapplication server 50 _(N-1) might be coupled via a direct network link,and another application server 50 _(N) might be coupled by yet adifferent network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and InternetProtocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating betweenapplication servers 50 and the database system. However, it will beapparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may beused to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain implementations, each application server 50 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 50. In one implementation, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 50 and the user systems 12 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 50. In one implementation, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 50. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain implementations, three consecutive requests from the same usercould hit three different application servers 50, and three requestsfrom different users could hit the same application server 50. In thismanner, by way of example, system 16 is multi-tenant, wherein system 16handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data andapplications across disparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 16 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant datastorage 22). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 16 that are allocated atthe tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant-specific data, system 16 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain implementations, user systems 12 (which may be clientsystems) communicate with application servers 50 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 16 that may involvesending one or more queries to tenant data storage 22 and/or system datastorage 24. System 16 (e.g., an application server 50 in system 16)automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one or moreSQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information. Systemdata storage 24 may generate query plans to access the requested datafrom the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects according to some implementations. It should be understood that“table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each tablegenerally contains one or more data categories logically arranged ascolumns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a tablecontains an instance of data for each category defined by the fields.For example, a CRM database may include a table that describes acustomer with fields for basic contact information such as name,address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might describe apurchase order, including fields for information such as customer,product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant database systems,standard entity tables might be provided for use by all tenants. For CRMdatabase applications, such standard entities might include tables forcase, account, contact, lead, and opportunity data objects, eachcontaining pre-defined fields. It should be understood that the word“entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with “object” and“table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.7,779,039, titled CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS IN A MULTI-TENANT DATABASESYSTEM, by Weissman et al., issued on Aug. 17, 2010, and herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, teachessystems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizingstandard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In certainimplementations, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored ina single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logicaltables per organization. It is transparent to customers that theirmultiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that theirdata may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers.

FIG. 7A shows a system diagram of an example of architectural componentsof an on-demand database service environment 900, in accordance withsome implementations. A client machine located in the cloud 904,generally referring to one or more networks in combination, as describedherein, may communicate with the on-demand database service environmentvia one or more edge routers 908 and 912. A client machine can be any ofthe examples of user systems 12 described above. The edge routers maycommunicate with one or more core switches 920 and 924 via firewall 916.The core switches may communicate with a load balancer 928, which maydistribute server load over different pods, such as the pods 940 and944. The pods 940 and 944, which may each include one or more serversand/or other computing resources, may perform data processing and otheroperations used to provide on-demand services. Communication with thepods may be conducted via pod switches 932 and 936. Components of theon-demand database service environment may communicate with a databasestorage 956 via a database firewall 948 and a database switch 952.

As shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, accessing an on-demand database serviceenvironment may involve communications transmitted among a variety ofdifferent hardware and/or software components. Further, the on-demanddatabase service environment 900 is a simplified representation of anactual on-demand database service environment. For example, while onlyone or two devices of each type are shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, someimplementations of an on-demand database service environment may includeanywhere from one to many devices of each type. Also, the on-demanddatabase service environment need not include each device shown in FIGS.7A and 7B, or may include additional devices not shown in FIGS. 7A and7B.

Moreover, one or more of the devices in the on-demand database serviceenvironment 900 may be implemented on the same physical device or ondifferent hardware. Some devices may be implemented using hardware or acombination of hardware and software. Thus, terms such as “dataprocessing apparatus,” “machine,” “server” and “device” as used hereinare not limited to a single hardware device, but rather include anyhardware and software configured to provide the described functionality.

The cloud 904 is intended to refer to a data network or combination ofdata networks, often including the Internet. Client machines located inthe cloud 904 may communicate with the on-demand database serviceenvironment to access services provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. For example, client machines may access theon-demand database service environment to retrieve, store, edit, and/orprocess information.

In some implementations, the edge routers 908 and 912 route packetsbetween the cloud 904 and other components of the on-demand databaseservice environment 900. The edge routers 908 and 912 may employ theBorder Gateway Protocol (BGP). The BGP is the core routing protocol ofthe Internet. The edge routers 908 and 912 may maintain a table of IPnetworks or ‘prefixes’, which designate network reachability amongautonomous systems on the Internet.

In one or more implementations, the firewall 916 may protect the innercomponents of the on-demand database service environment 900 fromInternet traffic. The firewall 916 may block, permit, or deny access tothe inner components of the on-demand database service environment 900based upon a set of rules and other criteria. The firewall 916 may actas one or more of a packet filter, an application gateway, a statefulfilter, a proxy server, or any other type of firewall.

In some implementations, the core switches 920 and 924 are high-capacityswitches that transfer packets within the on-demand database serviceenvironment 900. The core switches 920 and 924 may be configured asnetwork bridges that quickly route data between different componentswithin the on-demand database service environment. In someimplementations, the use of two or more core switches 920 and 924 mayprovide redundancy and/or reduced latency.

In some implementations, the pods 940 and 944 may perform the core dataprocessing and service functions provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. Each pod may include various types of hardwareand/or software computing resources. An example of the pod architectureis discussed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 7B.

In some implementations, communication between the pods 940 and 944 maybe conducted via the pod switches 932 and 936. The pod switches 932 and936 may facilitate communication between the pods 940 and 944 and clientmachines located in the cloud 904, for example via core switches 920 and924. Also, the pod switches 932 and 936 may facilitate communicationbetween the pods 940 and 944 and the database storage 956.

In some implementations, the load balancer 928 may distribute workloadbetween the pods 940 and 944. Balancing the on-demand service requestsbetween the pods may assist in improving the use of resources,increasing throughput, reducing response times, and/or reducingoverhead. The load balancer 928 may include multilayer switches toanalyze and forward traffic.

In some implementations, access to the database storage 956 may beguarded by a database firewall 948. The database firewall 948 may act asa computer application firewall operating at the database applicationlayer of a protocol stack. The database firewall 948 may protect thedatabase storage 956 from application attacks such as structure querylanguage (SQL) injection, database rootkits, and unauthorizedinformation disclosure.

In some implementations, the database firewall 948 may include a hostusing one or more forms of reverse proxy services to proxy trafficbefore passing it to a gateway router. The database firewall 948 mayinspect the contents of database traffic and block certain content ordatabase requests. The database firewall 948 may work on the SQLapplication level atop the TCP/IP stack, managing applications'connection to the database or SQL management interfaces as well asintercepting and enforcing packets traveling to or from a databasenetwork or application interface.

In some implementations, communication with the database storage 956 maybe conducted via the database switch 952. The multi-tenant databasestorage 956 may include more than one hardware and/or softwarecomponents for handling database queries. Accordingly, the databaseswitch 952 may direct database queries transmitted by other componentsof the on-demand database service environment (e.g., the pods 940 and944) to the correct components within the database storage 956.

In some implementations, the database storage 956 is an on-demanddatabase system shared by many different organizations. The on-demanddatabase service may employ a multi-tenant approach, a virtualizedapproach, or any other type of database approach. On-demand databaseservices are discussed in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 8A and8B.

FIG. 7B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environment,in accordance with some implementations. The pod 944 may be used torender services to a user of the on-demand database service environment900. In some implementations, each pod may include a variety of serversand/or other systems. The pod 944 includes one or more content batchservers 964, content search servers 968, query servers 982, file servers986, access control system (ACS) servers 980, batch servers 984, and appservers 988. Also, the pod 944 includes database instances 990, quickfile systems (QFS) 992, and indexers 994. In one or moreimplementations, some or all communication between the servers in thepod 944 may be transmitted via the switch 936.

In some implementations, the app servers 988 may include a hardwareand/or software framework dedicated to the execution of procedures(e.g., programs, routines, scripts) for supporting the construction ofapplications provided by the on-demand database service environment 900via the pod 944. In some implementations, the hardware and/or softwareframework of an app server 988 is configured to execute operations ofthe services described herein, including performance of one or more ofthe operations of methods described herein with reference to FIGS. 1-5.In alternative implementations, two or more app servers 988 may beincluded to perform such methods, or one or more other servers describedherein can be configured to perform part or all of the disclosedmethods.

The content batch servers 964 may handle requests internal to the pod.These requests may be long-running and/or not tied to a particularcustomer. For example, the content batch servers 964 may handle requestsrelated to log mining, cleanup work, and maintenance tasks.

The content search servers 968 may provide query and indexer functions.For example, the functions provided by the content search servers 968may allow users to search through content stored in the on-demanddatabase service environment.

The file servers 986 may manage requests for information stored in thefile storage 998. The file storage 998 may store information such asdocuments, images, and basic large objects (BLOBs). By managing requestsfor information using the file servers 986, the image footprint on thedatabase may be reduced.

The query servers 982 may be used to retrieve information from one ormore file systems. For example, the query system 982 may receiverequests for information from the app servers 988 and then transmitinformation queries to the NFS 996 located outside the pod.

The pod 944 may share a database instance 990 configured as amulti-tenant environment in which different organizations share accessto the same database. Additionally, services rendered by the pod 944 maycall upon various hardware and/or software resources. In someimplementations, the ACS servers 980 may control access to data,hardware resources, or software resources.

In some implementations, the batch servers 984 may process batch jobs,which are used to run tasks at specified times. Thus, the batch servers984 may transmit instructions to other servers, such as the app servers988, to trigger the batch jobs.

In some implementations, the QFS 992 may be an open source file systemavailable from Sun Microsystems® of Santa Clara, Calif. The QFS mayserve as a rapid-access file system for storing and accessinginformation available within the pod 944. The QFS 992 may support somevolume management capabilities, allowing many disks to be groupedtogether into a file system. File system metadata can be kept on aseparate set of disks, which may be useful for streaming applicationswhere long disk seeks cannot be tolerated. Thus, the QFS system maycommunicate with one or more content search servers 968 and/or indexers994 to identify, retrieve, move, and/or update data stored in thenetwork file systems 996 and/or other storage systems.

In some implementations, one or more query servers 982 may communicatewith the NFS 996 to retrieve and/or update information stored outside ofthe pod 944. The NFS 996 may allow servers located in the pod 944 toaccess information to access files over a network in a manner similar tohow local storage is accessed.

In some implementations, queries from the query servers 922 may betransmitted to the NFS 996 via the load balancer 928, which maydistribute resource requests over various resources available in theon-demand database service environment. The NFS 996 may also communicatewith the QFS 992 to update the information stored on the NFS 996 and/orto provide information to the QFS 992 for use by servers located withinthe pod 944.

In some implementations, the pod may include one or more databaseinstances 990. The database instance 990 may transmit information to theQFS 992. When information is transmitted to the QFS, it may be availablefor use by servers within the pod 944 without using an additionaldatabase call.

In some implementations, database information may be transmitted to theindexer 994. Indexer 994 may provide an index of information availablein the database 990 and/or QFS 992. The index information may beprovided to file servers 986 and/or the QFS 992.

While some of the disclosed implementations may be described withreference to a system having an application server providing a front endfor an on-demand database service capable of supporting multipletenants, the disclosed implementations are not limited to multi-tenantdatabases nor deployment on application servers. Some implementationsmay be practiced using various database architectures such as ORACLE®,DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scope of theimplementations claimed.

It should be understood that some of the disclosed implementations canbe embodied in the form of control logic using hardware and/or computersoftware in a modular or integrated manner. Other ways and/or methodsare possible using hardware and a combination of hardware and software.

Any of the disclosed implementations may be embodied in various types ofhardware, software, firmware, and combinations thereof. For example,some techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, at least in part,by computer-readable media that include program instructions, stateinformation, etc., for performing various services and operationsdescribed herein. Examples of program instructions include both machinecode, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-levelcode that may be executed by a computing device such as a server orother data processing apparatus using an interpreter. Examples ofcomputer-readable media include, but are not limited to: magnetic mediasuch as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media suchas flash memory, compact disk (CD) or digital versatile disk (DVD);magneto-optical media; and hardware devices specially configured tostore program instructions, such as read-only memory (“ROM”) devices andrandom access memory (“RAM”) devices. A computer-readable medium may beany combination of such storage devices.

Any of the operations and techniques described in this application maybe implemented as software code to be executed by a processor using anysuitable computer language such as, for example, Java, C++ or Perlusing, for example, object-oriented techniques. The software code may bestored as a series of instructions or commands on a computer-readablemedium. Computer-readable media encoded with the software/program codemay be packaged with a compatible device or provided separately fromother devices (e.g., via Internet download). Any such computer-readablemedium may reside on or within a single computing device or an entirecomputer system, and may be among other computer-readable media within asystem or network. A computer system or computing device may include amonitor, printer, or other suitable display for providing any of theresults mentioned herein to a user.

While various implementations have been described herein, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present applicationshould not be limited by any of the implementations described herein,but should be defined only in accordance with the following andlater-submitted claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A mobile device configured to delegate handlingof computing events of a mobile device application, the mobile devicecomprising: a storage medium, and one or more processors configured tocause: processing an identification of a computing event associated witha first component of a plurality of components of a first applicationexecutable on the mobile device, the event having associated metadata,the plurality of components comprising at least a native component and aweb browser component, the first application being provided by adatabase system of a cloud-based computing services environment, thecloud-based computing services environment having a plurality of memberorganizations; applying one or more rules to the metadata, the one ormore rules defined at least in part by a permission set controllable,via the cloud-based computing services environment, by a first one ofthe member organizations, a user of the mobile device being a member ofthe first member organization, the application of the one or more rulesto the metadata comprising determining that the user has been assigned afirst permission in the permission set, the first permission prohibitinghandling of the computing event by the first component, the one or morerules being stored on the storage medium, the one or more rules beingconfigured to be caused, by the database system, to be automaticallyupdated in response to a change in the permission set in the cloud-basedcomputing services environment; identifying, based on the application ofthe one or more rules to the metadata, a second component of theplurality of components for handling the event, the second componentbeing different from the first component; delegating, responsive toidentifying the second component for handling the event, handling of theevent to the second component; updating historical event data stored onthe storage medium to indicate that handling of the event has beendelegated to the second component, the historical event data comprisingidentifications of events and identifications of at least one of theplurality of components of the first application for handling theevents; and providing, responsive to user input and based at least inpart on the historical event data, a presentation of content associatedwith a previous event on a display.
 2. The mobile device of claim 1,wherein the one or more rules indicate at least one of a plurality ofparameters, the parameters comprising: a permission set associated witha user profile, a preference of a user, a preference of the first memberorganization, a permission of the first member organization, and acontext.
 3. The mobile device of claim 2, wherein the one or more rulesare customizable by the user of the mobile device and/or an authorizedmember of the first member organization.
 4. The mobile device of claim1, wherein: the first component is the native component, and the secondcomponent is the web browser component, and the one or more processorsare further configured to cause: providing a presentation on the displayof a list of one or more database records, the records related to thebusiness of the first member organization, the presentation of the listbeing associated with the first component; processing input from a userselecting a first one of the records; and generating, responsive to theuser input, the computing event, wherein the presentation of the outputon the display comprises a record page indicating one or more data itemsstored in association with the first record.
 5. The mobile device ofclaim 1, wherein: the first component is the web browser component, andthe second component is the native component, and the one or moreprocessors are further configured to cause: providing a presentation onthe display of a selection in association with a database record relatedto the business of the first member organization; processing input froma user indicating the selection; and generating, responsive to the userinput, the computing event, wherein the presentation of the output onthe display comprises at least one of: an enterprise social network feedassociated with the database record, a feed item of an enterprise socialnetwork feed associated with the database record, or a user profileassociated with the database record.
 6. The mobile device of claim 1,the one or more processors being further configured to cause: providinga presentation on the display an enterprise social network feedassociated with the business of the first member organization or a feeditem of an enterprise social network feed associated with the businessof the first member organization; processing input from a userindicating a selection in association with the presentation of theenterprise social network feed or of the feed item; and generating,responsive to the user input, the computing event, wherein thepresentation of the output on the display comprises at least one of: auser profile page indicating user data of a user affiliated with thefirst member organization, a record page indicating one or more businessdata items stored in association with a database record maintained onbehalf of the first member organization, or a group page indicatinggroup data of a group of users affiliated with the first memberorganization.
 7. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the computingevent is associated with at least one of a plurality of types CustomerRelationship Management (CRM) records stored in a database, the types ofCRM records comprising: accounts, tasks, leads, contacts, contracts andopportunities.
 8. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the computingevent is generated in association with one or both of: a notification oran invocation related to a second mobile device application.
 9. Themobile device of claim 8, the one or more processors further configuredto cause: determining that the second mobile application is authorized;and navigating, responsive to determining that the second mobileapplication is authorized, from the first mobile application to thesecond mobile application.
 10. The mobile device of claim 1, whereindata characterizing the event is received while the mobile device isoffline and the data characterizing the event is cached on the storagemedium such that the event is received when the first mobile deviceapplication is loaded.
 11. The mobile device of claim 1, the one or moreprocessors being further configured to cause: automatically updating theone or more rules by downloading the one or more rules from a serversystem associated with the database system.
 12. The mobile device ofclaim 1, wherein the cloud-based computing services environment is amulti-tenant database environment and each of the member organizationsis a tenant organization of the multi-tenant database environment.
 13. Amethod for delegating handling of computing events of mobile deviceapplications, the method comprising: receiving an identification of acomputing event associated with a first component of a plurality ofcomponents of a first application executable on a mobile device, theevent having associated metadata, the plurality of components comprisingat least a native component and a web browser component, the firstapplication being provided by a database system of a cloud-basedcomputing services environment, the cloud-based computing servicesenvironment having a plurality of member organizations; applying, by aprocessor of a mobile device, one or more rules to the metadata, the oneor more rules defined at least in part by a permission set controllableby a first one of the member organizations, a user of the mobile devicebeing a member of the first member organization, the application of theone or more rules to the metadata comprising determining that the userhas been assigned a first permission in the permission set, the firstpermission prohibiting handling of the computing event by the firstcomponent, the one or more rules being stored on a storage medium of themobile device, the one or more rules being configured to be caused, bythe database system, to be automatically updated in response to a changein the permission set in the cloud-based computing services environment;identifying, based on the application of the one or more rules to themetadata, a second component of the plurality of components for handlingthe event, the second component being different from the firstcomponent; delegating, responsive to identifying the second componentfor handling the event, handling of the event to the second component;updating historical event data stored on the storage medium to indicatethat handling of the event has been delegated to the second component,the historical event data comprising identifications of events andidentifications of at least one of the plurality of components of thefirst application for handling the events; and providing, responsive touser input and based at least in part on the historical event data, apresentation of content associated with a previous event on a display.14. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more rules indicate atleast one of a plurality of parameters, the parameters comprising: apermission set associated with a user profile, a preference of a user, apreference of the first member organization, a permission of the firstmember organization, and a context.
 15. The method of claim 13, wherein:the first component is the native component, and the second component isthe web browser component, and the method further comprising: providinga presentation on the display of a list of one or more database records,the records related to the business of the first member organization,the presentation of the list being associated with the first component;receiving input from a user selecting a first one of the records; andgenerating, responsive to the user input, the computing event, whereinthe presentation of the output on the display comprises a record pageindicating one or more data items stored in association with the firstrecord.
 16. The method of claim 13, wherein: the first component is theweb browser component, and the second component is the native component,and the method further comprising: providing a presentation on thedisplay of a selection in association with a database record related tothe business of the first member organization; receiving input from auser indicating the selection; and generating, responsive to the userinput, the computing event, wherein the presentation of the output onthe display comprises at least one of: an enterprise social network feedassociated with the database record, a feed item of an enterprise socialnetwork feed associated with the database record, or a user profileassociated with the database record.
 17. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium storing computer-readable program code to beexecuted by one or more processors when retrieved from thenon-transitory computer-readable medium, the program code includinginstructions configured to cause: applying, by a processor, one or morerules to metadata associated with a computing event generated inassociation with a first component of a plurality of components of afirst application executable on a mobile device, the plurality ofcomponents comprising at least a native component and a web browsercomponent, the first application being provided by a database system ofa cloud-based computing services environment, the cloud-based computingservices environment having a plurality of member organizations, the oneor more rules defined at least in part by a permission set controllableby a first one of the member organizations, a user of the mobile devicebeing a member of the first member organization, the application of theone or more rules to the metadata comprising determining that the userhas been assigned a first permission in the permission set, the firstpermission prohibiting handling of the computing event by the firstcomponent, the one or more rules being stored on a storage medium of themobile device, the one or more rules being configured to be caused, bythe database system, to be automatically updated in response to a changein the permission set in the cloud-based computing services environment;identifying, based on the application of the one or more rules to themetadata, a second component of the plurality of components for handlingthe event, the second component being different from the firstcomponent; delegating, responsive to identifying the second componentfor handling the event, handling of the event to the second component;updating historical event data stored on the storage medium to indicatethat handling of the event has been delegated to the second component,the historical event data comprising identifications of events andidentifications of at least one of the plurality of components of thefirst application for handling the events; and providing, responsive touser input and based at least in part on the historical event data, apresentation of content associated with a previous event on a display.18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein: the firstcomponent is the native component, and the second component is the webbrowser component, and the program code includes instructions furtherconfigured to cause: providing a presentation on the display of a listof one or more database records, the records related to the business ofthe first member organization, the presentation of the list beingassociated with the first component; generating, responsive to userinput selecting a first one of the records, the computing event, whereinthe presentation of the output on the display comprises a record pageindicating one or more data items stored in association with the firstrecord.
 19. Apparatus comprising: one or more computing devicescomprising one or more processors operable to: process an identificationof a computing event associated with a first component of a plurality ofcomponents of a first application executable on a mobile device, theevent having associated metadata, the plurality of components comprisingat least a native component and a web browser component, the firstapplication being provided by a database system of a cloud-basedcomputing services environment, the cloud-based computing servicesenvironment having a plurality of member organizations; apply one ormore rules to the metadata, the one or more rules defined at least inpart by a permission set controllable by a first one of the memberorganizations, a user of the mobile device being a member of the firstmember organization, the application of the one or more rules to themetadata comprising determining that the user has been assigned a firstpermission in the permission set, the first permission prohibitinghandling of the computing event by the first component, the one or morerules being stored on a storage medium of the mobile device, the one ormore rules being configured to be caused, by the database system, to beautomatically updated in response to a change in the permission set inthe cloud-based computing services environment; identify, based on theapplication of the one or more rules to the metadata, a second componentof the plurality of components for handling the event, the secondcomponent being different from the first component; delegate, responsiveto identifying the second component for handling the event, handling ofthe event to the second component; update historical event data storedon the storage medium to indicate that handling of the event has beendelegated to the second component, the historical event data comprisingidentifications of events and identifications of at least one of theplurality of components of the first application for handling theevents; and provide, responsive to user input and based at least in parton the historical event data, a presentation of content associated witha previous event on a display.
 20. The apparatus of claim 19, whereinthe one or more rules indicate at least one of a plurality ofparameters, the parameters comprising: a permission set associated witha user profile, a preference of a user, a preference of the first memberorganization, a permission of the first member organization, a context,and an entity.